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Fitting Round Pegs Into Square Holes? Fitting round pegs into square holes? Did Balduin of Luxemburg, Archbishop of Trier use gunpowder artillery in the siege of Eltz castle 1331/33 ? An analysis by Klaus Leibnitz Abstract:. This paper analyses a theory which attempts to show that a Loshult gun like artillery piece was used in Germany at the siege of Eltz castle in 1331/3. Keywords: Medieval gunpowder , artillery, gun arrows, Loshult cannon, Milemete codices 1.Introduction This paper is intended to stimulate further research into the very interesting topic of early gun arrows. The reason for presenting it is the publication of a series of articles by Wilfried Tittmanni, in which a separate section is devoted to the postulated artillery of Balduin of Luxembourgii , Archbishop of Trier, and which contains some conclusions with which we disagree. It is an undisputed fact that the first illustrations of gunpowder weapons in Europe appeared in the Milemete codicesiii, which can be precisely dated to 1327iv. About their actual size there are many dissenting opinions, but as to their missiles there are none i.e. they are shown to shoot arrows.v After these illustrations there is a gap of about 70 years before new pictures of guns can be foundvi. During this period the more or less ineffective firearm as well as the gunpowder used in them had matured and developed along two completely different lines. On the one hand the gun developed into the small Handbüchse or hand gun and on the other hand in to the large Steinbüchse or bombard. Gunpowder also improved further. From the simple, inefficient roughvii mixed fine-grained so-called meal gunpowder it developed into the wet-mixed Knollenpulver or grained powder and it was soon found by trial and error that a ratio of saltpetre to sulphur to charcoal of 6 : 1 : 2 was the most efficient mixture, a ratio which has remained almost unchanged to this day. As far as projectiles were concerned the small handguns fired small lead- or respectively iron hail shot, depending upon the diameter of the bore. The larger guns fired stone shot as well as other forms of ammunition such as scrap-iron and pebbles. And both could and did shoot arrows At present it is unknown when the use of arrows as projectiles for guns fell in disuse, if it was ever widespread. In the early gunnery manuals, the so-called Feuerwerkbücher,viii dateable to 1 1370 – 1500, there are definite instructions as to what sort of projectiles were to be fired from guns, they fired spherical stone shot. Charles V’s three-barrelled wheel lock pistol of c. 1540 preserved in the Armeria Reale in Turin which fired steel darts instead of lead balls is an unique piece, an oddity. Nevertheless, most of the early gunnery manuals also contain information how to shoot arrows , rods or stakes from guns, though this is missing from the later copies and seems to have stopped being recorded by about 1450.ix However, by the year 1400 two distinctly different types of guns had developed side by side, the small bronze handgun of Tannenberg type firing exclusively lead shot and the bombard which fired stone shot of large diameter.x 2. The Eltz Gun Arrow Theory As already mentioned, in 1994/5 a German researcher, Herr Wilfried Tittmann tried to show in a series of publications that the early guns were arrow-shooting weapons and developed from fairly small pieces, a theory not wholly unreasonable and in a broad sense most likely to be correct. But how small is small ? And did these guns only shoot arrows ? This theory was postulated by combining what in our opinion are two completely different artefacts, namely a group of hitherto unidentified arrows on display in Eltz castle, Germany, and a small cannon found in Loshult, Sweden. The theory has been criticised by this writerxi and by others xii after it appeared in print. In my own case the criticism was based on a purely scientific analysis of the gunpowder available at the time and on the construction of the Loshult gun , because when dealing with guns, gunpowder and gunnery the laws of physics and chemistry must also be taken into consideration as well as the supposed military application of these devices. At the time when criticising the theory firstly I did not consider these arrows to be particularly important and had mentioned them in my paper only in passing. Yet, since these arrows are the very key to what we may henceforth call the Eltz Gun Arrow Theory they, as well as the conclusions emanating from their existence, must now be scrutinised more carefully. Mr. Tittmann wrote that his own reconstruction concentrated on the Loshult gun as a basis and he presented his theory that the Loshult gun might be an arrow-shooting gun at a meeting of the Gesellschaft für Waffen-und Kostümkunde in 1978xiii, but the reception of this theory was, because of lack of proof, not very enthusiastic. After a visit to Eltz castle in 1984 however, Tittmann thought he might have found the missing link in the form of five arrows on display there.xiv Any firearm requires four things, firstly the gunpowder to propel the projectile, secondly the projectile to be fired from the gun, thirdly the gun itself and fourthly a target at which the 2 missile is to be shot at. In the following these four requirements will be scrutinised in more detail. 3. Gunpowder in the early 14th century . How the knowledge of gunpowder came to Europe is still uncertain, but it is an undisputable fact that in the first half of the 14th century it was already fairly well known in that area.xv Recipes for gunpowder have survived in quite a few manuscripts and give an indication that a functioning, dry mixed gunpowder was available at the beginning of the 14th century. The most important ingredient of gunpowder is saltpetre. What has not yet been established (although some points have been cleared up experimentally ) is what kind of saltpetre was used, the naturally occurring calcium saltpetre Ca (NO3)2 which can be produced under the climatic conditions prevailing in Europe, or potassium saltpetre KNO3 produced by the conversion of calcium nitrate, or a mixture of the two.xvi The quality of the gunpowder depends primarily on the ratio of the individual components to each other, the purity of the materials used, the grain size of the individual components and the degree of mixing. Experiments undertaken by this writer et al show that an increase in the percentage of saltpetre in a gunpowder mixture causes, up to a certain point, an increase in muzzle velocity. 4. The Eltz Gun Arrows; a new Piltdown xviiman ? When the Eltz Gun Arrow Theory was postulated it was not certain what gun-arrows looked like. It is still uncertain. The picture of the arrow in the Oxford Ms is not clear on this point, especially not in early reproductions . Four heads from missiles which can only have been intended for gun-arrows similar to the Milemete arrows have turned up in several locations in Germany. These finds were introduced to the public by a well known researcher on cut and thrust weapons, Gerhard Seifert, as early as 1989xviii. The arrow heads were of such a size that they would almost have fitted the smaller Milemete gun , with an estimated calibre measuring between 40-50 mm. A fifth arrow, similar to those previously found was recovered in the same location later in the same year.xix 3 Fig. 1 Arrow heads, most likely from gun-arrows, found in Rodenbach(#1) ,Herborn (#2) and Dillenburg( #3 and # 4 ) , all in the county of Hesse, Germany. Photograph courtesy of Gerhard Seifert. These above arrow heads measure between 216 mm and 248 mm, they weight from 375 g to 525 g, though it is very difficult to evaluate them precisely for due to heavy corrosion, they had after all been underground for more than five centuries, much material is missing. The arrows exhibited at Eltz castle and the theory built upon them was introduced by Wilfried Tittmann five years after Seifert introduced the arrow heads he had found. Although Tittmann was aware of the existence of the arrow heads published by Seifert, since I had mentioned them in a paper on the Milemete codices,xx which he commented extensively uponxxi, it is regrettable that he did not pursue this matter farther.xxii The origins of four of the Eltz arrows are obscure; but according to tradition they are trophies of the siege of Eltz castle 1331/3. They are regarded as having been used during the so-called Eltz Feud when soldiers in the army of the Archbishop of Trier, Balduin of Luxembourg, laid siege to Eltz castle and were allegedly kept in the armoury as a memento since that time. Neither the chronicles of Archbishop Balduin nor those of Eltz castle mention that a new kind of weapon had been used in the siege, contrary to what one would have expected.xxiii Furthermore, the history of the Eltz arrows as given in the paper on the Eltz Gun Arrow Theory is rather vague. Tittmann does not present any conclusive proof that the arrows really did originate from the time in question, let alone that were used in the 1331/3 siege. The fifth arrow is purported to be the missing link between the other four arrows and the siege of the castle, as it was found in 1975 or 1976 ( sic) under a heap of rubble in a demolished outer part of the fortification of Eltz.
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